Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ or any of it's characters. Akira Toriyama does. Kudos to him.

Nekita-Tzui looked at the wreckage of a perfectly good ship and sighed heavily, switching her gaze hastily from the smoking ruins to the woman sitting on the ground next to her.

Avril was polishing one of the twin pistols that were usually situated at her waist, secured there by two leather straps, along with a ribbon of ammo. She looked up disinterestedly as she felt Nekita's gaze fall upon her.

"Oh! Don't look so glum," she said cheerfully, grinning in her usual disarming way," it's not that bad, and besides it could be a lot worse." A portion of the craft came crashing down loudly, falling with a heavy thud. Nekita looked hopelessly at it, and shook her head.

"How?" She demanded.

"Well, we could've landed on a planet with no civilization what's so ever, then we would've been in trouble, but since we're on…er…what did you say this place was called again."

"Namek," Nekita said shortly.

"Right, since we're on Namek, we'll probably get help in no time." Avril stood up, swinging the gun around her finger, before replacing it in its holster. After that she turned from the wrecked spacecraft and surveyed their surroundings with a critical eye.

Namek was certainly an interesting planet, she reflected. They had crash-landed near a deep green pool, surrounded by thin stick-like trees with a mass of leaves crowning their tops. Everything else was bare rock or high cliffs. She shook back her raven hair from her face, and glanced at the sky. Clouds were gathering at the horizon, uh-oh, she thought, not good.

"Well?" Nekita demanded," what now?"

"Don't pop a vein, Tzui-Tzui, it's not like this is the end of the world, you high Priestesses need to learn to relax a bit." Avril stretched out her arms and sat back down with a leisurely sigh. Nekita flushed slightly at the mention of her former title, and reluctantly lowered to the ground as well.

She sighed and leaned back against the tall boulder that sheltered them from the wreckage. How long had it been since she had met Avril? It seemed like she'd known her all her life but in reality it couldn't have been more than a week. Nekita smiled faintly, remembering the circumstances of their first meeting. Sure at the time it didn't seem so funny, she was the High Priestess of Gelra, a planet so far away from any civilization that it was still practically living in its own time. She had been ruling just a few years when a plot to assassinate her had forced her into exile. On the night that she was making her way from the palace that had become a death trap, Avril just happened to be casually robbing it for a client who had his eye on one of their many artifacts. This was rare; Avril later explained, distastefully, since she usually didn't work for clients, she didn't specify if she usually robbed royal dwellings, that one she left for Nekita to figure out. But seeing the fleeing royal must have sent a wave of compassion through the thief-slash-con artist, (or as Avril herself proudly put it, Pirate). So she took her along, on her extremely well equipped and state of the art cruiser, which now lay in smoldering ruins only a couple of hundred feet away.

Nekita sighed again and shook her head, covering her eyes with her hands. She really wanted to know how Avril planned to fix all this.

The pirate-woman meanwhile appeared to be taking a nap. Her brilliant green eyes were closed, and her arms folded comfortably, an expression of total peace on her face.

"Avril!" Nekita exclaimed impatiently.

"Huh! What, oh yeah, sorry, I'm awake." She opened her eyes and looked around wistfully.

"We can't just stay here," Nekita pointed out patiently," we have to get help."

"Help?" Avril frowned slightly," aww man, tell me something, Namek doesn't happen to go into the Federation of Liberated Planets does it?" Nekita looked puzzled.

"I don't think so."

"Good," Avril said smiling," because I'm wanted on every one of those. Now, did you happen to glance at the radar before we fell?" Nekita shook her head," nuts, that's gonna make this harder, but hey, difficult is not impossible, right?" The priestess didn't look so sure, so reluctantly Avril got up again, dusting herself off. She glanced briefly at her ship, scowling ferociously. "What hit us, anyway? Whatever it was better watch it's back from now on, that baby cost me practically my whole…er…life savings." She ended hastily. Nekita rolled her eyes and got up.

"I think a large energy readout registered right before the crash, we were very close to it, something's going on around here, and I don't like it, where would such force come from." She shook her head worriedly," from all I've heard about Namek the people on it are supposed to be peaceful, they wouldn't have any use for the type of energy I felt."

"Maybe it wasn't the locals." Avril suggested, casually slinging a semi-automatic rifle across her shoulder. On most days Avril was a walking arsenal, when she was angry the arsenal doubled in size, until it resembled something like a military warehouse. Nekita glanced apprehensively at the rifle, and then at the sky.

"I don't like it," she repeated again," it's too quiet here." Avril tilted her head to one side. Her gaze slid slowly to the pool of water they were situated next to. A sudden ripple came over its surface, materializing as if from nowhere. The pirate's eyes widened.

"Get Down!" She shouted at Nekita, simultaneously ducking behind the long boulder and managing to pull the slightly lost priestess along with her. Nekita didn't have time to ask what had happened. A tremendous tremor shook the ground, causing the ground to crack and slide away beneath them. A shower of rocks and pebbles rained down from the sky, and the water in the pool shot up in huge fountains. It felt like the earth was being torn apart from the inside out. But very slowly the shaking calmed slightly, until it was no more than a distant tremor, and then vanished completely.

Avril immediately popped back up, dusting herself off calmly, as if she had only bent down to tie her shoe, instead of save her life. She glanced around thoughtfully, and whistled softly.

"Hey, Tzui-Tzui, look at this." Very slowly and shakily Nekita got up, and looked in the direction Avril was pointing. Right behind them, directly where their craft had been was now a long jagged ravine, its edges still alive with remains of fire. The ship was nowhere to be seen, swallowed up by the shaking earth. "So much for getting help." Avril muttered, pushing her hair away from her face, and turning towards Nekita," well, you're the priestess, any idea what that was?" The young exile bowed her head slightly in thought.

"It had a definitely familiar energy signature." She said confidently, this area was her expertise, she new different types of energy and force inside and out. It came as part of her training." I'm not sure exactly what it belongs to, but whatever it is, it's very strong, and I'm afraid…" she paused," it's not here to do good." She said at last.

"No kidding," Avril said grinning," can you tell what direction it came from." Nekita frowned in concentration, trying to pick out the now fading energy at its central point.

"There," she said at last, nodding in the general direction where their craft had been," somewhere past those mountains, and a little to the left." A sly smile was beginning to creep across the pirate's face. Nekita looked at her suspiciously," why? Wait! Avril! You're not suggesting…"

"Why not? We can use some excitement, things have been pretty boring lately."

"Boring!" Nekita exclaimed," just yesterday we barely managed to escape with our lives from that marauder band." Avril waved her hand carelessly.

"Marauders, Hah! That's nothing! Those excuses for a good fight couldn't hit an elephant if it was standing right in front of them waving a red flag! No, this seems like it could be interesting."

"But Avril," Nekita cried despairingly," this thing's really strong, it could hurt you, I can feel its power still growing." Avril grinned, and placed her hands on the very tops of her twin pistols.

"That's why I've got these," she said smiling," and besides, this thing crashed my almost-brand-new ship, I'm on three of the top ten wanted lists in the universe because of what I had to do to get that ship, I'm not letting it go this easy." She looked up towards the far cliffs, then down at Nekita. "Come on, Tzui-Tzui, an adventure never hurt anyone." Nekita was about to disagree, but Avril didn't let her. "Besides, it's not like we have anything left to do here." She put her hands on her hips and laughed, beginning to walk towards the mountains behind which the powerful being or force was supposed to be situated. The priestess hesitated a moment, then got up to follow her friend.

"After all, she might need my help yet." She thought to herself.

***